Turkiye's security concerns should be met, the country's foreign minister said Wednesday on Sweden and Finland's NATO applications.
Speaking to reporters ahead of his bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkiye has been in support of NATO's open-door policy for new members, adding: "We understand their security concerns, but Turkiye's security concerns should also be met."
"We have also legitimate security concerns that they have been supporting terrorist organizations," said Cavusoglu, adding that another issue was export restrictions on Turkish defense products.
"We already expressed our concerns and I had a candid and direct talk with two colleagues," he said.
The Nordic countries are seeking NATO membership in the wake of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. For any new member to join NATO, the alliance's members must agree unanimously, including Turkiye.
Turkiye, a longstanding NATO member, has voiced objections to Finland and Sweden's membership bids, criticizing the countries for tolerating and even supporting terror groups, including the YPG/PKK.
Over the last five years, both Sweden and Finland have failed to agree to Ankara's requests for the extradition of dozens of terrorists, including members of the PKK and Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkiye.
Senior representatives of Sweden and Finland are set to visit Turkiye in the coming days to hold official talks in Ankara to discuss their accession processes.
Later in another press conference, Cavusoglu said it is "unacceptable" that the countries seeking NATO membership support terror groups that target Turkiye.
He also said Blinken will "give the messages necessary to address Turkiye's security concerns" about the membership of the two Nordic countries.
